The present invention relates generally to cutting apparatus of the type having multiple cutting blades supported in spaced relation for making multiple correspondingly spaced parallel cuts and, more particularly, to a novel arrangement for independently adjusting the spacings between the multiple cutting blades in order to selectively make differently spaced cuts in workpieces.
Various forms of cutting apparatus exist in differing industries for making multiple spaced parallel cuts simultaneously in a traveling workpiece utilizing respectively spaced cutting blades. By way of example, one particular form of cutting apparatus utilized in the woodworking industry is typically referred to as a gang rip saw, being equipped with multiple rotary wood-cutting blades commonly mounted on a driven arbor shaft at spacings to one another for "rip" sawing of elongate wood boards and planks lengthwise into multiple boards of smaller respective widths, e.g., into standard as well as non-standard board sizes. Because the usable width of wood boards and planks may vary from board to board and because substantially any possible width of wood boards may be required in a given woodworking application, it is a common necessity that the multiple cutting blades of such a sawing apparatus will need to be adjusted to differing spacings from one another on a regular basis, up to several times over the course of a given work day or work shift. In most conventional gang rip saws, the spacings between saw blades are achieved by mounting one or more spacing elements of given axial dimensions on the arbor shaft of the saw between the adjacent pair of blades to maintain a desired dimensional spacing or spacings between the saws. While this arrangement functions satisfactorily for the intended purpose, the assembly of the saw blades and spacing elements on the arbor can be a time-consuming task, especially when changing the spacing of saw blades in the course of operation of the sawing apparatus. The resulting down time in the operation of the sawing apparatus can thereby reduce its operating efficiency and productivity.